Staten Island Memories: An affirmation of holiday cheer

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - I believe in Santa Claus! In an age of advanced technology and scientific acumen, I realize that it is, to say the least, a bold statement.

Yet, 113 years after an editor from the New York Sun, Francis Pharcellus Church, wrote history’s most reprinted editorial, it is even more consequential to reaffirm Church’s answer to 8-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon’s simple and direct inquiry, “Is there a Santa Claus?

“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” wrote Church in that Sept. 21, 1897, editorial reply. Church had been a war correspondent during the Civil War and perhaps the suffering he encountered served in later years as an impetus for the hope he expressed in his famous response to the little girl.

“He exists as certain as love and generosity and devotion exist ... Alas, how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus.”

Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Saint Nicholas trace at least as far back as the third century A.D. It was at Myra — the capitol of Lycia, a province in Asia — that the good Bishop Nicholas, a Byzantine Greek, lived and served. He became noted for his charity and good works and his name spread throughout that area of the world.

Churches were built at Myra and Constantinople and Amsterdam in his honor. He became the origin of Father Christmas and presents were given in his name on his feast day, Dec. 6.

The story that anchored his place in folklore with worshipers and children was known as the “Three Daughters.” It was said that he dispensed with all his fortune to save a destitute family with three young daughters from ruin. This admirable act of charity and goodness solidified St. Nicholas in the hearts of the people.

This was the beginning. His fame spread. In Holland, they called him Sinterklass, in Germany he was known as Kris Kringle. His beard went from gray to snow white, though still clad as a bishop, his robes were shown to be a bright red.

This evolution brought the kindly old gent to America, where in 1809, Washington Irving wrote a satire of New York’s Dutch past and in it he had Sinterklass riding “over the rooftops” in a wagon, “wherein he brings his yearly presents to children.”

The final brush stroke came from Thomas Nast, a caricaturist for Harper’s Weekly, who, in 1863, gave Santa a flowing beard.

But it was a professor of Oriental and Greek literature at Columbia College (now University) named Clement Clarke Moore who dotted the “i’s and crossed the t’s,” when in 1922, he read some verses he had written to amuse his children. They were published a year later with the title, “An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas,” to become popularly known as “The Night Before Christmas.”

There was no escaping the blessings of the Christmas season that this gregarious figure would bestow upon generations of the children of the world, all of them, of all ages.

In a crowded Staten Island Sears department store a week before Christmas, a 4-year-old was in the charge of her grandpa Tom. He gave her a pen and a sheet of paper to occupy the wait while grandma and mommy shopped. “Grandpa,” the child asks, “what do you want for Christmas?”

“Shoes,” the man said. After laboriously marking the request on the sheet of paper, she said, “what else do you want? Socks?”

“Sure,” said grandpa Tom. “Good,” said the little girl. “I’ll put it on my list to Santa.” There is nothing purer than the faith of a child. She believed and for that time, so did her grandfather.

Santa does his part every Christmas to make the world a better place; to bring out the best in people. Wouldn’t it be a wonder if one time that spirit would carry over to the rest of the year?

It is the wish of every Christmas reveler every single year, but it is yet to be. Too bad, for then we would truly know peace on Earth and good will towards all men.

Said Mr. Church in his editorial: “No Santa Claus? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.”

Oh, yes, some years ago, the old Hollywood cowboy, Gene Autry, wrote and recorded the lively Christmas tune, Here Comes Santa Claus. Is there still room for doubt? 